+++ SPOILERS ON++
The prelims are half-done and on my walk to work through the woods by the Lossie, I've been listening to the following BF audios.
Static is by Jonathan Morris; I dislike his politics and his timey-wimey stories veer in quality from entertaining Douglas Adams pastiche Festival of Death to brain-melting tedium like The Paradox Planet. This one revolves around time paradoxes and is set in a caravan park ( in the 70s? The 80s? It was unclear to me) menaced by alien entities utilising wavelengths - so "Static" is quite a witty pun.
I felt it was quite like previous audios Criss Cross and Vengeance of the Stones; the duplication of DW ideas over 54 years and multiple media annoys me. I know it's irrational. While there are interesting ideas about bereavement and guilt, it was also very similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Flip who seemed like an annoying version of Rose Tyler actually grew on me here and I fretted over the fate of Constance Clark but ultimately, while it was quite spooky, it wasn't very affecting in the end. 3 out of 5 Talmars.
Over the last couple of days, I finally got around to Nicholas Briggs' Return of the Daleks. This was one of the subscriber freebies from long- ago 2006! You used to have to wait about a year for them to go on (limited) sale in outlets like Forbidden Planet but this one passed me by.
I did read the script, however, in print in the BF hardback Dalek Empire at the end of 2006 but I don't remember much about that book. It's a cross-over with the first Dalek Empire audio series- which I think is among Briggs' best writing- and features the late Gareth "Roj Blake" Thomas as the telepathic warrior Kalendorf and also Suz, the Angel of Mercy.
The big reveal is that the story is a sequel to Planet of the Daleks ( and we know Briggs retuned to that well with The Conquest of Far last year. It was quite tense and quite brutal - I can't recall BF using the Ogrons from The Pertwee Years anywhere else. It's self-contained and stars Sylvester McCoy at his most sepulchral. A good listen if you want a one-off Dalek adventure. 4/5 Talmars.
I want to rave, however about The War Master: Only The Good! There was a time when Big Finish box sets were something of a special occasion - mere six years ago. Now there are two or three a month. But,despite their ubiquity, there can be absolute gems and this is one.
Derek Jacobi's Master plots, manoeuvres and murders across space and time here from the aquatic civilization of Gardezza to suburban Marigold Lane, role-playing as kindly Doctor Keller, a vineyard owner and even as the Doctor himself.
The Master appears to play a paternal role to guilt-ridden young medic Cole Jarnish ( Johnny Green's likeable performance reminds me of Philip Olivier's Hex in the Seventh Doctor audios). Cole's tragic romance in the bucolic world of The Sky Man reaches a climax which genuinely chilled me ("Retribution!") The Master's plans for Cole are inevitably horrible and monstrous when he attempts to steal a Time Lord weapon from twinkly Nerys Hughes in The Heavenly Paradigm.
We first met "Del Boy's " personification of apocalypse back in 2004's Scream of the Shalka.
Jacobi's Master is civilized, a little camp- even cuddly- but utterly ruthless. It's shocking to hear how he dispatches a scientist and mother in Beneath The Viscoid and his mirth as the set dovetails neatly into 2010's Utopia. There are also fine performances from Jacqueline "Sylvia Noble" King and Mark "Number Six" Elstob.
I enjoyed this box much more than the War Doctor series and am now very keen to follow the nuanced and compelling Jacobi Master in the upcoming Gallifrey Time War and UNIT Cyber-Reality box sets.
Coming up: Space Family Robinson; Dare ( really- eventually); the Meddling Monk and The First Doctor
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